Together
by Lilacnightmares
Summary: She's having a rough night, and she knows that she can turn to Seven for help when she's feeling like this, but she doesn't want to bother him when he's got the literal weight of the world on his shoulders. Writing Trade from Tumblr.


If there was one that Bridgit appreciated about Saeyoung Choi it was how he could make her feel like she was the most important person in the world to him. It was strange and surprisingly new.

Never before had anyone made her feel like she was truly important, marginally by far, most of the people that she had been subjected to being around her entire life had made her feel like she was a burden who could offer nothing to the world but merely being there to drag the rest of them down with her. She had a hard time just trying to accept that somebody as amazing and talented as he was, was interested in somebody as plain and simple as her. Sometimes that thought hit hard in the middle of the night when she was alone with her thoughts and unable to sleep.

Tonight was one of those nights.

Even as she lay in bed next to him, she stared up at the ceiling with a bit of trepidation in her stomach.

Was she really all that he said that she was these days? Was she really somebody that mattered? Was she actually somebody that people could genuinely care about? Or was he just saying those things because he really thought she looked like a pitiful wet dog in the rain?

Was he just… pretending?

No, no… that couldn't be.

Saeyoung would never do something like that. She was just dumb enough to think that he wasn't genuine. Maybe it was that the problem was with her and that she was the one ruining everything. She was the one making a fuss of things, anyway, so, she had to be the problem, right?

Bridgit sighed, letting a frown cross her face. She glanced over at Saeyoung's sleeping form.

He was amazing. He was perfect. He was great. He could be a little bit rough around the edges sometimes but he still was there for her and his friends through thick and thin. He was everything that she had ever wanted. But, she still wasn't sure if she was deserving of that.

Reaching out, she pressed a hand to his cheek.

"...I wish I could be better for you," she murmured, sitting up in bed and turning her back to him. "But… I'm just not."

Bridgit went and left their room for a little bit. She decided that if she wasn't going to be able to sleep, she was going to get a bit of fresh air to clear her thoughts.

Along her way out of the bunker, she noted that things were quiet. It was never this quiet, there was always light and life in the halls, be it from the fun that Saeyoung was determined to have now, or the fact that there was more than one person living here now. Would it have been like this when she was stuck in the apartment?

Was he lonely back then when it felt like this?

How did he cope with it?

She knew that she had been.

Bridgit spent those lonely hours in the apartment as she had spent her entire life in and out of foster care. She gritted her teeth and dealt with the loneliness by pushing forward.

If that was all that you had ever known then you didn't know any better, but she knew what it felt like to have a home with people that cared about you. It stung more when that was taken away. She had almost grown used to feeling like that would never find her again, and now that she had it back, she couldn't help but fear that it would be ripped away again just like that.

Bridgit didn't want to close her eyes and wake up to a cold bed again.

She stepped outside of the door and let the crisp air of the winter night brush against her skin. She tugged the hoodie that she had strewn over her shoulders a little tighter against her skin. Saeyoung wouldn't mind that she had borrowed one of his, nah, he always told her that he thought it was really cute when she did stuff like that. She could have checked the chatroom to see if anyone was awake to get her mind off of things, but lately, everybody had been practicing better habits. Nobody was staying up too late, not even Yoosung, who had spent a lot of time gaming before the sunrose. Normally, she would have talked the night away with Seven but she didn't want to disturb his sleep.

He had been working really hard lately and trying to piece back his relationship with his brother had really drained him. It was better than it had been, but it still needed time. He wasn't bound to his secret agency anymore but he still had to make sure that things were running smoothly in other places. He had a lot of things that he ensured.

He had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Saeyoung didn't have to deal with her late-night feelings that sprung up every now and again. She would feel different in the morning and then it would be over, as simple and as easy as that. She just had to make it through the rest of the night on her own… or at the very least, tire herself out enough to go to bed and wake up better.

It would only take a couple of minutes.

Right?

Wrong.

Bridgit tried to scroll through her phone and ease her woes but she just got caught up in looking at old photos and suddenly, before she knew it, her grey eyes were flooded over with tears and she couldn't focus on anything apart from how gross she felt on the inside.

This was so… pitiful.

She should have known that this would happen when she got involved in backpedaling all that she had been trying to work on fighting. Footsteps could be heard from behind her as the door slid open and a blanket was set over shoulders as Saeyoung plopped down onto the ground next to her and stared ahead of them at the dirt where she was staring.

"I didn't want to wake you," she said in a quiet voice. "I'm sorry."

"My phone goes off when the front door opens," Saeyoung told her, softly. "I was going to let you be but I just can't stand still when you're crying, hun. You don't have to tell me what's wrong. I just don't want you to be alone."

Bridgit sniffled. She turned her head to look over at him, frowning. "I just… don't feel good enough."

Saeyoung wrapped an arm around her shoulders; He held her close and she leaned into his touch and tried to muffle some of her tiny sobs. It was the real truth, she just didn't feel good about herself and all she wanted was for those feelings to just go away.

It was difficult for her to be able to talk about this stuff all the time, but he was patient, God, was he ever patient with her feelings.

He let her cry it all out for as long as she needed to do so before he even tried to step in and say anything. She just needed to let it out instead of balling it upside until she exploded. Saeyoung used to be bad about that, and he knew very well what it felt like to feel like you were going to overflow and flood with negative feelings out of the blue.

Bridgit was just so grateful for him.

"I don't think that I'm worthy of your love," she told him. "I just don't feel like I'm everything you say. I'm nothing special, Seven. You're so smart, and always able to do anything. I'm not like that… I just… clam up and get so scared when I don't know what to do. I knew I should have asked you to help me through this but I just… didn't want to bother you."

"I just haven't really gotten better. You? You've managed to come through all of this pain this year and you're still standing, smiling, laughing, even. I wish that I could be like you. I wish that I was braver than I am… then maybe I wouldn't feel so awful."

Saeyoung shook his head.

"You're not a bother," he said. "You try to think things through, and there's nothing wrong with that. I rush into things, and that isn't always a good thing. It's gotten me into plenty of trouble, remember? That's why I'm not allowed within two hundred feet of Elly."

Bridgit snorted.

That brought a smile to Seven's face.

He rang his fingers through and down her hair, tangling and twisting his fingers in her blue locks. "I care about you, Bridge. It doesn't matter what's happening, and if you need me, it's okay to get my attention. I would feel worse if I wasn't able to be there for you when you feel like this. You're the reason that I've been able to live through all of this. At the end of a really hard day, you're always there for me, and that's what keeps me going."

"You're important to me. I'm the one that should be saying that I don't know where I would be without you, not you. Lean on me when you're feeling bad. Isn't that what you told me back when I was being stupidly stubborn?"

Saeyoung pulled back just enough that he could see her face. He wiped away some of those stray tears with his thumbs. She smiled, though however weak it was, it was a start in the right direction. She shook her head, obviously incredulous at how quick he was.

"Hey, don't use my words against me like that," she mumbled.

"Hey, I'm just calling like it is." He said.

He reached down and pressed his lips to her own. Just a little peak but enough for her to know that he was right there and that he loved her. No matter what she was feeling and thinking, no matter how her anxiety had overwhelmed her, Saeyoung was always going to be there for him because Bridgit had always been there for him.

It was his way of showing his love.

Just as much as making a fire-breathing dog to protect her from any kind of danger was a part of his love language.

When he pulled away, she smiled.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

It wasn't always going to be easy but as long as they had each other than anything was possible.


End file.
